Problem 1: A smersh vest is non-repairable from either the sewing kit or the leather sewing kit.
Problem 2: After searching for hours for a pristine smersh vest/backpack and combining it with the damaged accessory I already had I then discovered that the pristine item will default to damaged, which is odd but still understandable. This brings me to point with problem 1, I can not repair the full unit back to worn condition as the smersh vest is non-repairable.
This almost makes the combo piece of the smersh vest and backpack useless as you would have to carry around a pristine piece until you find the other pristine piece if you wish to maintain the pristine quality, this would be near impossible.